“Which way do we head?” asked Kennedy, as he saw his
friend consulting the compass.

“North-northeast.”

“The deuce! but that’s not the north?”

“No, Dick; and I’m afraid that we shall have some trouble in getting to
Gondokoro. I am sorry for it; but, at last, we have succeeded in
connecting the explorations from the east with those from the north; and
we must not complain.”

The balloon was now receding gradually from the Nile.

“One last look,” said the doctor, “at this impassable latitude, beyond
which the most intrepid travellers could not make their way. There are
those intractable tribes, of whom Petherick, Arnaud, Miuni, and the young
traveller Lejean, to whom we are indebted for the best work on the Upper
Nile, have spoken.”

“Absolutely so. The sources of the White Nile, of the Bahr-el-Abiad, are
immersed in a lake as large as a sea; it is there that it takes its rise.
Poesy, undoubtedly, loses something thereby. People were fond of
ascribing a celestial origin to this king of rivers. The ancients gave it
the name of an ocean, and were not far from believing that it flowed
directly from the sun; but we must come down from these flights from time
to time, and accept what science teaches us. There will not always be
scientific men, perhaps; but there always will be poets.”

“We can still see cataracts,” said Joe.

“Those are the cataracts of Makedo, in the third degree of latitude.
Nothing could be more accurate. Oh, if we could only have followed the
course of the Nile for a few hours!”

“And down yonder, below us, I see the top of a mountain,” said the
hunter.

“That is Mount Longwek, the Trembling Mountain of the Arabs. This
whole country was visited by Debono, who went through it under the name
of Latif-Effendi. The tribes living near the Nile are hostile to each
other, and are continually waging a war of extermination. You may form
some idea, then, of the difficulties he had to encounter.”

The wind was carrying the balloon toward the northwest, and, in order to
avoid Mount Longwek, it was necessary to seek a more slanting current.

“My friends,” said the doctor, “here is where our passage of the
African Continent really commences; up to this time we have been
following the traces of our predecessors. Henceforth we are to launch
ourselves upon the unknown. We shall not lack the courage, shall we?”

“Never!” said Dick and Joe together, almost in a shout.

“Onward, then, and may we have the help of Heaven!”

At ten o’clock at night, after passing over ravines, forests, and
scattered villages, the aëronauts reached the side of the Trembling
Mountain, along whose gentle slopes they went quietly gliding. In that
memorable day, the 23d of April, they had, in fifteen hours, impelled by
a rapid breeze, traversed a distance of more than three hundred and
fifteen miles.

But this latter part of the journey had left them in dull spirits, and
complete silence reigned in the car. Was Dr. Ferguson absorbed in the
thought of his discoveries? Were his two companions thinking of their
trip through those unknown regions? There were, no doubt, mingled with
these reflections, the keenest reminiscences of home and distant friends.
Joe alone continued to manifest the same careless philosophy, finding it
quite natural that home should not be there, from the moment that
he left it; but he respected the silent mood of his friends, the doctor
and Kennedy.

About ten the balloon anchored on the side of the Trembling Mountain, so
called, because, in Arab tradition, it is said to tremble the instant
that a Mussulman sets foot upon it. The travellers then partook of a
substantial meal, and all quietly passed the night as usual, keeping the
regular watches.

On awaking the next morning, they all had pleasanter feelings. The
weather was fine, and the wind was blowing from the right quarter; so
that a good breakfast, seasoned with Joe’s merry pranks, put them in high
goodhumor.

The region they were now crossing is very extensive. It borders on the
Mountains of the Moon on one side, and those of Darfur on the other—a
space about as broad as Europe.

“We are, no doubt, crossing what is supposed to be the kingdom of Usoga.
Geographers have pretended that there existed, in the centre of Africa, a
vast depression, an immense central lake. We shall see whether there is
any truth in that idea,” said the doctor.

“But how did they come to think so?” asked Kennedy.

“From the recitals of the Arabs. Those fellows are great narrators—too
much so, probably. Some travellers, who had got as far as Kazeh, or the
great lakes, saw slaves that had been brought from this region;
interrogated them concerning it, and, from their different narratives,
made up a jumble of notions, and deduced systems from them. Down at the
bottom of it all there is some appearance of truth; and you see that they
were right about the sources of the Nile.”

“Nothing could be more correct,” said Kennedy. “It was by the aid of
these documents that some attempts at maps were made, and so I am going
to try to follow our route by one of them, rectifying it when need be.”

“Is all this region inhabited?” asked Joe.

“Undoubtedly; and disagreeably inhabited, too.”

“I thought so.”

“These scattered tribes come, one and all, under the title of Nyam-Nyams,
and this compound word is only a sort of nickname. It imitates the sound
of chewing.”

“That’s it! Excellent!” said Joe, champing his teeth as though he were
eating; “Nyam-Nyam.”

“My good Joe, if you were the immediate object of this chewing, you
wouldn’t find it so excellent.”

“Why, what’s the reason, sir?”

“These tribes are considered man-eaters.”

“Is that really the case?”

“Not a doubt of it! It has also been asserted that these natives had
tails, like mere quadrupeds; but it was soon discovered that these
appendages belonged to the skins of animals that they wore for clothing.”

“More’s the pity! a tail’s a nice thing to chase away mosquitoes.”

“That may be, Joe; but we must consign the story to the domain of fable,
like the dogs’ heads which the traveller, Brun-Rollet, attributed to
other tribes.”

“Dogs’ heads, eh? Quite convenient for barking, and even for man-eating!”

“But one thing that has been, unfortunately, proven true, is, the
ferocity of these tribes, who are really very fond of human flesh, and
devour it with avidity.”

“I only hope that they won’t take such a particular fancy to mine!” said
Joe, with comic solemnity.

“See that!” said Kennedy.

“Yes, indeed, sir; if I have to be eaten, in a moment of famine, I want
it to be for your benefit and my master’s; but the idea of feeding those
black fellows—gracious! I’d die of shame!”

“Well, then, Joe,” said Kennedy, “that’s understood; we count upon you in
case of need!”

“At your service, gentlemen!”

“Joe talks in this way so as to make us take good care of him, and fatten
him up.”

“Maybe so!” said Joe. “Every man for himself.”

In the afternoon, the sky became covered with a warm mist, that oozed
from the soil; the brownish vapor scarcely allowed the beholder to
distinguish objects, and so, fearing collision with some unexpected
mountain-peak, the doctor, about five o’clock, gave the signal to halt.

The night passed without accident, but in such profound obscurity, that
it was necessary to use redoubled vigilance.

The monsoon blew with extreme violence during all the next morning. The
wind buried itself in the lower cavities of the balloon and shook the
appendage by which the dilating-pipes entered the main apparatus. They
had, at last, to be tied up with cords, Joe acquitting himself very
skilfully in performing that operation.

He had occasion to observe, at the same time, that the orifice of the
balloon still remained hermetically sealed.

“That is a matter of double importance for us,” said the doctor; “in the
first place, we avoid the escape of precious gas, and then, again, we do
not leave behind us an inflammable train, which we should at last
inevitably set fire to, and so be consumed.”

“That would be a disagreeable travelling incident!” said Joe.

“Should we be hurled to the ground?” asked Kennedy.

“Hurled! No, not quite that. The gas would burn quietly, and we should
descend little by little. A similar accident happened to a French
aëronaut, Madame Blanchard. She ignited her balloon while sending off
fireworks, but she did not fall, and she would not have been killed,
probably, had not her car dashed against a chimney and precipitated her
to the ground.”

“Let us hope that nothing of the kind may happen to us,” said the hunter.
“Up to this time our trip has not seemed to me very dangerous, and I can
see nothing to prevent us reaching our destination.”

“Nor can I either, my dear Dick; accidents are generally caused by the
imprudence of the aëronauts, or the defective construction of their
apparatus. However, in thousands of aërial ascensions, there have not
been twenty fatal accidents. Usually, the danger is in the moment of
leaving the ground, or of alighting, and therefore at those junctures we
should never omit the utmost precaution.”

“It’s breakfast-time,” said Joe; “we’ll have to put up with preserved
meat and coffee until Mr. Kennedy has had another chance to get us a good
slice of venison.”